Psalms accompanied by Lute

"In mid-16th-century France the pious middle classes and
even on occasion the worldly courtiers were wont to sing psalms in elegant
French translations by the court poet, Clément Marot. Since Marot had not
made his translations for narrow sectarian reasons, both Catholics and
Protestants used them, either for devotional purposes in their own homes, or
for their own edification, singing the simple straightforward tunes to which
the translations had been set, either monophonically or accompanied with
lute, guitar, harpsichord, or some other similar instrument. Even though
numerous notices recommend or describe the practice of singing psalms and
other "sainctes chansonettes" to the lute, no collection of this sort
appeared in print until 1552, when Adrian Le Roy published his Tiers
livre de tabulature de luth, contenant vingt & un Pseaulmes, Le tout selon
le subjet. This was two years before Guillaume Morlaye published his
intabulations for voice and lute of the psalms à 4 by Pierre Certon,
Psaumes de Pierre Certon réduits pour chant et luth par Guillaume Morlaye
(1554), the only other collection of psalms with lute printed in France
in the 16th century."

The Complete Works of Nicolaes Vallet are published
in facsimile, ed. L.P. Grijp (Utrecht: Dutch Lute Society, 1986-1992)

In another collection (Secretum Musarum, the secret of the Muses,
1615, f° 22) Vallet also published a lute-intabulation of "A Ton bras droit"
(= Psalm 110, verse 5), based on the composition by Claude Lejeune (last
Psalm in the Dodecacorde). On the CD Psaumes et Chansons de la
Réforme Eric Bellocq supposedly plays this piece (track 22). However
this is not the case. In reality he plays "Quand on arrestera la course
coutumiere" (Secretum Musarum
f° 21), also a composition of Claude Lejeune (no psalm but an
Octonaire de la vanité et inconstance du Monde). Discovery made with the
help of Christoph Dalitz (see below).

The German translation of the Marot/Bèze Psalter by Ambrosius Lobwasser, also
created a - albeit contested - popularity of the Geneva melodies, resulting - of
course - in music. Vallet also was aware of the German market since he provided
the titles in four languages (in this order!): Latin, French, German, Dutch.
Clearly aiming at the German market we find:

This is a collection of six two part ricercars having a cantus firmus in the
lower part that is taken from the 16th century Genevan psalter. The
countersubject is related to the cantus firmus through polyphonic imitation.
both these vocal versions (for alto and tenor) and the arrangements for
Renaissance lute (with the idiomatic divisions and embellishments) can be found
and downloaded under creative commons copyright from the site of the composer:
http://music.dalitio.de/instr/lute/psalm-ricercars-cd/. Here one hears psalm
5:

Guitar

Psalm 2 and two versions of
Psalm 137 arranged for guitar are even older
than the lute intabulations mentioned above: They are part of